Dozens of families gathered Dec. 20 in Wyman Park Dell to drink hot cider and hot chocolate, roast marshmallows over two bonfires, listen to a banjo band, and usher in the winter solstice the next day.

"This brings you out to feel the winter," said bundled-up Susan Ricard, 52, of Charles Village, chatting with her brother, Fred, who was visiting from Albany, N.Y., while her son, Aaron Haettenschwiller, roasted a marshmallow on a stick.

The third annual event was co-sponsored by Friends of Wyman Park Dell, the Parks & People Foundation, the Baltimore Museum of Art and Gertrude's restaurant located in the museum. Gertrude's chef and owner John Shields, a member of Friends of Wyman Pak Dell, supplied the hot drinks, which were sold for $1 a cup, to raise money for the Friends of Wyman Park Dell.

Sitting by one of the bonfires were banjo players Robert Smith, of Anneslie, and Jim Eagen, of Hamilton, and guitarist Andy Thurston, of west Baltimore, members of the band Custom House, which plays regularly at J. Patrick's Pub in Locust Point.

Also on hand was retired office manager Herman Heyn, of Waverly, a self-proclaimed "street corner" astronomer, who has been setting up his telescope at the Inner Harbor and in Fells Point about twice a week since 1987, to offer the public free views of the heavens. Heyn had planned to show solstice celebrants the planet Venus through his telescope, but alas, it was too cloudy.

Still, Heyn made himself useful as the unofficial explainer of the solstice. It's the day of the year when the sun reaches its lowest point in the sky and the shortest day of the year, too -- nine hours, 20 minutes this year, he said.

The celebration drew residents from Charles Village, Abell, Guilford, Oakenshawe and Waverly.

Elaine Comeau, of Charles Village, an executive with a health information company in downtown Baltimore, came with her two dogs, Beauty, an 8-year-old spaniel, and Max, a 7-year-old dachshund, which she walks in Wyman Park Dell twice a day.Also there were Doreen Bolger, director of the BMA, and John Shields, acclaimed chef and owner of Gertrude's, who is known for his Chesapeake recipes.

"It's a nice thing to do to get people out," said Shields, vice president of Friends of Wyman Park Dell. "You don't think of coming to the park in the winter. What better time than the solstice?"

The 16-acre public park, a city landmark, is located south of Johns Hopkins University and the museum, bounded by Charles Village to the east and south, and by Remington to the west. According to the Friends group's Web site, www.wymanparkdell.org, the dell, with its steep enclosing slopes and a large, sweeping lower lawn, was designed by the Olmsted Brothers, who designed the city's first comprehensive park system in 1904.

The dell used to have drainage problems that turned it into more of a swamp, but the city fixed the problem in recent years.

"This is not just a neighborhood park. It's a jewel," said Marcia Holden, president of the Friends group. She said the dell gets plenty of volunteer help, especially from the university, in planting trees and clearing away invasive species.

Susan Ricard has fond memories of the park in the 1970s when rock bands played in the dell often. Her boyfriend was in one band that played Allman Brothers and Grateful Dead songs.

The highest praise came from her brother, the upstate New Yorker. He grew up in Govans and walked to the park often in the 1950s.

Now, Ricard, 60, said, "It hasn't changed."

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